One simple way to make yourself smarter is to believe that it's possible and tell yourself you're smart&period; Other simple hacks include getting more exercise&comma; taking naps and socializing more often&period; Of course&comma; there are some off-the-beaten-path tricks to making yourself smarter too&period; For example&comma; researchers from Japan discovered that riding motorcycles improves a person's ability to process and retain information&comma; while another group of scientists found that the more sex you have&comma; the smarter you'll be&period;

Still not convinced&quest; Here are 12 science-backed ways to make yourself smarter&period;

&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;It might sound cheesy&comma; but it's true&period; Simply telling yourself you're smart will actually make you smarter&period; A
study conducted by professors from Stanford University and Columbia University found that when students were simply told they were smart&comma; they performed better&period; In the study&comma; one group of students was told it's possible to get smarter&comma; while the other group was told the opposite&period; Then&comma; after the groups were tested on course material&comma; 85 percent of the first group retained the information they had just learned while only 54 percent of the second group did&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;

&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;From boosting happiness to improving your physical health&comma; socializing has a variety of
benefits&period; And another benefit to add to the list is boosted intelligence&period; According to a
study by the University of Michigan&comma; people who engage in social interactions more often typically display higher cognitive performance than people who don't&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;

&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;Pop in a piece of chewing gum&comma; and you might notice a slight increase in your brain's performance&comma; in addition to lower stress levels and a better mood&period; In an
experiment&comma; a group of participants were separated into two rooms&comma; a quiet room and a loud room with constant screeching sounds&comma; and asked to focus on a challenging task&period; In each room&comma; half of the participants were given a piece of chewing gum and half were not&period; In the end&comma; chewing gum was associated with greater alertness&comma; quicker reaction times and increased attention spans&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;

Feeling tired&quest; Instead of heading for the coffee&comma; try a quick nap&period; Chances are you'll wake up feeling refreshed and restored&period; That's according to a study by the University of California&comma; Berkeley&comma; which examined the academic performance of two groups of students&colon; nappers and non-nappers&period; In the experiment&comma; every participant completed a rigorous learning task&comma; where scores wound up being relatively similar amongst the entire group&period; After the first task&comma; one group of students took a 90-minute nap while the other stayed awake until a second task was administered hours later&period; The participants who napped in between tasks did significantly better on the second task and also showed signs of improvement and learning&period; Non-nappers&comma; on the other hand&comma; became worse at learning and their ability to retain information dwindled&period;

&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;That's right -- even having sex can boost your brain's performance&period; In fact&comma; the more frequent the sex&comma; the better&period; A
recent study&comma; which asked a group of adults questions about their sex lives and then had them to take a standardized test after&comma; uncovered a positive link between sex frequency and intelligence&period; People who claimed to engage in sexual activity weekly wound up having higher test scores than people who did not&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;

&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;Turns out&comma; there's no need to scold yourself for indulging in daydreams&period; In fact&comma; letting your mind wander can actually make you smarter&period; An
experiment conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology analyzed the brain patterns of 100 participants through an MRI machine&comma; then asked the participants to complete a test that measured their intellectual and creative abilities&period; The people who the scientists noticed daydreamed the most had significantly higher test scores than the non-daydreaming participants&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;

&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;As an adult&comma; there's no need to feel like it's too late to pick up a guitar or take piano lessons&period; These things can not only provide you with a new hobby&comma; but they can also raise your IQ&period; According to
research&comma; regularly playing an instrument changes the shape and power of the brain&comma; ultimately improving a person's cognitive skills&period; That's because the areas of the brain responsible for processing and playing music are the same areas that control motor skills&comma; hearing and memory&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;

&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;Working out has a plethora of health benefits&comma; including boosting a person's cognitive functions&period; Through testing on mice&comma;
scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School discovered a specific molecule called "irisin" that is produced when a person exercises&period; While irisin has the ability to protect the brain from degeneration and impairment&comma; the researchers also found that the more of it in the blood stream&comma; the more activated the genes involved in memory and learning become too&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;

In addition to waking you up in the morning&comma; a cup of joe can also help you think more quickly&period; According to a study&comma; 200 mg of caffeine &lpar;the equivalent of a 12-ounce cup of coffee&rpar; improves a person's verbal processing speed&period; By providing a group of adults a 200 mg caffeine pill in the morning and then asking them to complete word recognition tasks&comma; the researchers discovered improved speed and accuracy compared to when they completed these tasks without caffeine&period;

&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;Rosemary's not just for recipes from a cookbook&period; According to
research&comma; the scent of rosemary can boost your mental agility and performance&period; In a 2012 study&comma; a group of participants were asked to complete numerical reasoning tests before and after being exposed to the smell of rosemary&period; In the end&comma; people not only scored significantly higher on tests after smelling rosemary but they also completed tests quicker too&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;

&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;This one might come as a surprise&comma; but according to joint
research by Tohoku University in Japan and Yamaha Motor Co&period;&comma; riding motorcycles can make you smarter and less stressed&period; According to their research&comma; the area of the brain responsible for memory&comma; information processing and concentration is improved when riding a motorcycle&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;

&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;And we don't mean on the computer&period; Grabbing a pen and paper and writing things out is proven to make you smarter&period; According to
research by Princeton University and the University of California&comma; Los Angeles&comma; students who took notes by hand during lectures retained more information&comma; had stronger grasps on lessons and performed better on tests than people who took notes on their computer&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;